


dreams are better with you

by tokyobivouac



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 05:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17718590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokyobivouac/pseuds/tokyobivouac
Summary: Karolina doesn't like the nightmares she's been getting.Until one day, it stops.





	dreams are better with you

**Author's Note:**

> had this in my mind while trying to sleep so here you go lol

 

 She hates it.

She hates waking up breathless and emotionally drained. It’s a vicious cycle. The same thing happens every morning, seven days a week and it’s crushing her.

She wonders what it’s like to wake up and not feel all of those things. She wonders what it’s like to wake up and not have to worry about anything. She wonders what it’s like to wake up and not have the urge to analyse what she experienced in her sleep.

The nightmares.

She’s jealous of her parents when they all gather to have breakfast. She sees them cheerful and ready to seize the day as they say. She notices all the smiles they give each other and she thinks to herself, how much she’d give to have just that. To live life and be happy.

 

Everyone is bound to have nightmares every night until you’ve truly fallen in love, her mom said to her as she was putting her to sleep when she was around seven years old. A year older and that was when her time began. It’s known that humans will have to go through that starting from the age of eight, until whenever you’ve started to actually love someone.

For some people, it sounds unfair. But for others, it gives them hope and anticipation.

For Karolina, it might be a mixture of both.

She doesn’t let anyone know of that fact, however.

She prefers that information to be within herself only.

 

She sits upright on her bed as she tries her hardest to keep her eyes open while tying her hair into a neat ponytail. She remembers bits of her nightmare last night, something about a dark shadow following her every step until she’s got nowhere to go, and before it ends her eyes flutter open and she’s back to the world.

Karolina used to be traumatized by the nightmares when she first got them. She vividly recalls the amount of days and nights she spent cooped up in her parents’ room instead of her own. When it happened, it was severe and gave a significant impact to her life.

But soon as she grew older, the nightmares occurred too often that she became numb. They were also getting more and more predictable as time passed, so that helped her cope with it too.

Now that she’s 17, she’s at that point where she doesn’t even care anymore but it’s still tiresome nonetheless. She hates getting her life sucked out of her in those alternate dimensions.

 _Can’t I just find someone already? Fall in love with whoever that is and get this over with_.

 

She sighs as her driver drops her off at the uni. The only thing she’s looking forward to every morning is seeing her friends and talk about random things. They have a tradition though, and that is to share whatever nightmare they had the night before.

“It’s kind of like therapy, I mean, when you talk about it to someone it won’t sound as scary as you think it is when it happened,” Gert said one day. Karolina was doubtful of the idea at first but after a week of having those ‘nightmare therapy sessions’, Gert’s words began to make sense.

And so they have that compulsory session this morning too.

For Gert, she had a dream that her puppy, Old Lace, got lost and didn’t come home for months. She found out that the poor puppy had died.

For Nico, she had to drown herself with her legs tied to the bottom of the ocean. She says she struggled for what felt like forever, until everything went pitch black. That’s when she woke up.

And every day, Karolina listens. She sympathizes. She cares.

She thinks it’s what makes her friends like her for, and she’s not wrong.

 

* * *

 

Her final class for the day is cancelled and she can’t be more grateful for that. For some reason, she’s not in the mood for studying today. She’s noticed earlier in the morning that she’s feeling a bit off about everything. She can’t put her finger on why or how she feels that way.

“Wanna hang at my place?” Gert offers, her hands busy packing her stationeries and notebooks inside her bag.

Nico ponders for a second, “I’m not sure but I’ll think about it,” she’s all packed and ready to head home.

Karolina merely shakes her head as a sign of declining the offer, “I’m in the mood for some relaxing today. Thanks for offering, though.”

 

She doesn’t know that when she comes home, she would have to witness a sight that she never thought she would. A sight that she thought would only appear in her dreams, nowhere near reality.

But here they are.

Her parents are shouting and screaming at each other. Something about the church? Problems. Misunderstandings. Karolina’s hearing mixed and muffled words. Some of them turn out to be curses and slurs. She hates it. She wants it to stop. Please make it stop.

What happened to her parents? What happened to the smiles they gave this morning? Were they all fake? Do bad things in dreams come to a stop and occur in real life instead? She wants answers but she can’t open her mouth. She can’t speak aloud.

Before she knows it her eyes are brimmed with tears. Her visions are unclear.

She wipes her tears and starts running away. She’s going anywhere. Anywhere but that house.

 

Her feet are taking her to one of her friends’ houses. She doesn’t know why she’s here, but she’s here and she can’t think. Her mind is clouded with thoughts. Negative thoughts. She still wants it to stop.

When the front door opens and Karolina sees Nico, she panics.

What is she supposed to say now?

Sorry I came here crying with my face and hair a mess.

Sorry I came here unnoticed.

My parents are fighting.

I’ve never heard so many terrible words being said out loud under my own roof before.

Sorry I came here.

Sorry.

None of those are said aloud but the only thing she remembers is that she’s now in Nico’s embrace. She doesn’t know why but she lets it happen. She lets Nico hug her. And she’s hugging her back.

 

When Nico pulls away, Karolina feels ashamed. She has no right to show up in front of someone’s house in a state like this, let alone expect them to care for you and treat you right.

But Nico seems like she’s willing to care for her and treat her right.

“Why are you crying? Did something happen?” the shorter girl asks, her voice soft and full of concern.

Karolina doesn’t say a word. She has her head down, her eyes closed. She can’t face Nico right now.

Nico takes hold of one of her hands and pulls her face back up by her chin, “I’m sorry I asked that so soon, please come in first,”

When they both step in she realizes that they’re the only ones at home. She’s thankful.

Karolina wakes up in the middle of the night to see that she’s still in Nico’s bed, the owner sleeping just beside her. She’s glad that Nico is not too far or too close for her comfort. The distance between them is just right. She notices that their hands are laced together within the space they have. She doesn’t want to let go just yet. Karolina listens to Nico’s steady breathing. She listens until she falls asleep.

 

* * *

 

This isn’t normal.

Instead of the normal pitch black, now she sees is all light.

There are flowers everywhere, of different kinds. Is she in a garden? Why is she in a garden full of flowers? She doesn’t want to complain but she wants answers.

She’s about to pick up one of the flowers, until she hears a soft noise coming from behind her.

“Karolina,”

She hears her name and turns almost immediately, only to see her visions become blurry by the second.

That looks like..

“Hey, Karolina,” the said person feels her body being shaken.

“Wake up,” soft pats on her face.

“Can you open your eyes? I’m starting to get worried..” as soon as she takes note of the slight sadness in the owner’s voice, Karolina’s finally wakes up.

Nico smiles, relief evident on her face, “oh thank God you’re okay,”

Karolina sits up, sighing contentedly, “I’m glad I woke up too.”

 

* * *

 

 “So your parents are in bad terms now?” Gert asks Karolina the morning after, while waiting for their lecturer in class.

“I mean, I guess so? They’re acting like they’re not but I know better,” Karolina thinks about the time she saw her parents again after that incident. They wouldn’t talk to each other for almost half a day but it got better through the night. For some reason, Karolina was slightly relieved.

Gert breathes out a long sigh, “well it’s good to know that you were in good hands the night it happened,”

If Karolina knows better, she can swear that she just saw her friend smirking? But then again Gert does that ninety percent of the time so she isn’t so sure right now.

Just as she’s about to tell more, she observes the way Gert’s face lights up and she’s waving to the direction in front of them. Karolina turns and she sees Nico just walking in.

There’s a lot going through Karolina’s mind right now as Nico walks up to their seats, and she isn’t sure why the thoughts are even there in the first place.

The one thing Nico does as soon as she sits with them is placing one of her hands on Karolina’s thigh and the owner’s mind is going haywire when it happens.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Nico asks as she reaches to her bag to take out some of her books for the lecture, her eyes avoiding Karolina’s.

“I-I’m fine,” Karolina can’t believe she just stuttered her words.

When Nico finally looks up and they’re looking at each other, the lecturer is already halfway into the class.

“Good.” Nico simply says.

 

* * *

 

 When Karolina wakes up this time, she doesn’t feel heavy anymore. It almost feels like a weight has been lifted off her chest. And then she realizes.

The nightmares have stopped.

Instead they’re replaced with the same dream over and over again.

She can’t say she wants _that_ to stop but she’s dying to know how it’s going to end.

Every time she turns to look at the person who called for her name, it all gets blurry and she wakes up. She does vividly remember how the person is wearing all black, though.

Weirdly enough, she only knows one person who does that.

But she’s shaking that thought off her mind.

_Karolina, you’re going crazy._

 

* * *

 

 It freaks her out when she spots more than two of her usual friends when she arrived to the uni this morning.

“We allow men to be with us now?” Karolina asks to the group and they break into laughter. She notices how happy Gert looks and that’s freaking her out even more.

“Actually, something crazy happened,” Gert speaks.

Karolina’s eyes dart to where Gert’s hand is holding. Gert is holding hands with Chase. They’re all smiles and holding hands.

_What?_

This is the most freaked out Karolina has ever been.

“Am I hallucinating? Why are Gert and Chase holding hands?” she asks to no one in particular.

“Because,” Chase makes eye contact with the blonde, tightening his hands around Gert’s, “we found out that we’re.. well, apparently soulmates.”

“Holy shit,” is all Karolina can mutter. She glances at Nico to look at her reaction and the latter just shows off a small smile, her hands fiddling.

Gert releases her hand from Chase and places them on Karolina’s shoulders to get her attention, “our nightmares stopped and instead they’re replaced with happy dreams. It’s like, such a drastic change? But we both love it. We finally feel free.”

When Karolina takes in all of her friend’s words, she breaks into a genuine smile.

“I’m happy for you guys.”

 

* * *

 

 Is she happy? Of course she is.

She just wishes that she can have what Gert and Chase have, too.

 

“Hello? Earth to Karolina Dean?”

Karolina snaps out of her trance. Oh right, she’s studying with Nico in her room right now.

“Are you okay?” Nico asks, concerned evident in her eyes.

Karolina’s not even sure what the word ‘okay’ means anymore but she hides that thought away and assures Nico anyway, “I’m okay. Sorry about that,” she smiles sheepishly.

Nico can’t help but mirror her expression, “you keep zoning out these days. Am I really that boring?” she cracks an appropriate joke.

Karolina is quick to deny, “no, no. God, no. I’m just- well, there’s something that happened to me last week,” is she really ready to talk about this to someone? She doesn’t know but she decides that someone like Nico deserves to know.

Nico is looking at her, her face unreadable. Karolina takes that as a sign to go on.

“I mean, I-I’m not sure how to say it,”

“Hey,” Nico reaches out for Karolina’s hand, her thumb softly grazing over it. “Karolina, you can tell me anything.”

Karolina swears that she’s never seen Nico that way before and it’s putting her through a lot of unknown emotions.

“My nightmares.. I think they’ve stopped too.” Karolina finally voices out.

She feels Nico’s hand slowly pulling away and she hates how her hand now feels empty without that touch.

“Really?”

Karolina thinks Nico’s voice sounded sad. Why is she sad?

“Y-yeah, instead I keep having this same dream every night but it’s not anything like the nightmares. This once makes me feel.. peaceful. Like everything’s okay again,” she explains to Nico.

Nico’s fingers are tapping on the bed sheets, her hands won’t stay put. “Oh.” Is all she utters.

“Is that.. a good thing?” Karolina dares to ask. She wishes Nico’s hands would stop moving and doing things because she knows Nico only does that when she’s under stress or when she feels nervous. Why would Nico be stressed in this situation? It doesn’t add up.

Nico steadily nods, “of course it is,” she’s finally looking at Karolina now, “it means your nightmares are over and they’re never gonna come back,”

“If it is,” Karolina shifts closer to where Nico is sitting until their knees touch, “then why don’t you sound happy for me?”

Nico chuckles softly, her head hanging down. “I might have a secret to share too,”

“What is it?”

“My nightmares stopped a while ago. Well, a year ago, to be exact.”

 

Karolina is shocked for words. All this time, Nico has been making up the nightmares to her and Gert? Those stories aren’t real? How did she do all that?

Nico can clearly see the horrified look on Karolina’s face so she thinks it’s best for her to continue, “I know, I know and I’m sorry I’ve been lying to you and Gert. The stories I’ve been telling you aren’t real. I made most of them up, some of them I may have taken from reddit, though-“

“Nico! Why didn’t you tell us? Tell me?” Karolina has her hands on Nico’s arms now. She doesn’t even know why she did that, she just wants closure.

Nico sighs, “I don’t know. I was too afraid, I guess.”

They both don’t say a word to each other for some time after that.

Until Karolina remembers something.

“Wait, does this mean.. you’ve been in love with someone for a year now?”

Nico can literally feel her face heating up, “uhh, y-yeah.. I think so,”

Karolina feels dejected and she knows damn well most of it is the fact that her friend is in love with someone. Shouldn’t she feel happy for Nico?

“You are too, right?”

“Hmm?”

Nico snickered, “you told me you’re having better dreams now. That only means you’ve fallen in love with someone too,”

 

_Oh._

 

“I- I think so? I mean, in the dream, there’s this person who called out for me and I don’t get to know who it is because the person’s face isn’t clear but she’s wearing all black and you’re the only person I know who.. does that.. ” Karolina hates herself because she isn’t supposed to say the last words out loud.

Nico’s smile grows and her face softens. “That sounds nice, actually. I’m not trying to sound more specific but in my dreams, I was wearing all black and saw a pretty blonde girl picking a flower in the garden. I don’t get to see her face in its entirety too, but all I can recall is that she has blue eyes.”

“Holy shit,” Karolina murmured.

Before Karolina can say anything, she sees Nico leaning in closer to where she’s sitting. They’re so close to each other, she can literally feel Nico’s breaths against her. Their noses now merely inches apart.

 “Is this okay?” Nico asks, her voice almost a whisper.

Karolina doesn’t answer. Instead, she leans in and let their lips touch.

 

* * *

 

 Gert is sending Chase off to his first class of the day when she sees Karolina and Nico coming towards her direction, hands interlocked.

“Whoa, I miss classes for one day and you’re holding hands now?” Gert gives off her signature smirk.

Karolina blushes. She’s about to let go of Nico’s hand until she feels her tightening their hold.

“Hey, you’re not the only one who has a soulmate,” Nico proudly exclaims, not trying to hide the fact that her cheeks are flushed as well.

Gert chuckles, “I totally called it.”

 

 


End file.
